All posts by lauriaarop

All of this what I’ve written below is what I already thought and believed before our trip. But during this time some things in these areas just got much clearer and intensified. Here are some things to be brought out:

The World is a huge place

First and foremost I understood that the world is much bigger then it might seem during our everyday lives. Although people nowadays live quite a busy lifestyle traveling from one place to another during a week or even during a single day, we are still quite often limited to our so to say circle. Getting out of it is quite refreshing, especially if you go to a totally different environment. Of course it’s nothing new, I knew it before but actually living the experience is much different then seeing it through a screen.

The World is a tiny place

Contrary to the first point, from another perspective the world is quite small. And it’s mostly due to the different technologies we have developed lately (lately compared to the history of mankind). Within a reasonable amount of hours you can get from one side of the globe to the other, from a winter wonderland to a tropical forest. And thanks to the internet you are still connected to everyone within a matter of milliseconds, just like being back home. I think that sometimes we really forget to appreciate this opportunity to be able to connect with anyone instantly. Remember that next time when you don’t get an answer through a messenger within a minute 🙂

Culture and religion can vary hugely

Coming from Estonia, the least religious country in the world, it really takes some time to consider religion as a separate topic since in here it’s really not a topic at all. But in many and actually most of the places it is. It’s really interesting to see how the religion affects and forms societies in different parts of the world. And the cultural differences can be quite different also. Some things that are considered as totally normal may seem weird to us and vice versa. That is the case towards animals likewise and to be quite honest we really didn’t like how some people acted towards cats, dogs, monkeys, turtles and many other animals in some areas. I know that these kind of people are to be found everywhere but in some places the situation is truly awful!

We need to do something with all this garbage, especially plastics!

I’m proud to say that everything in Estonia is quite clean. Streets, alleys, forests, seas and so on. Especially after a very noteworthy cleaning project called Teeme Ära. It’s basically a once a year countrywide cleaning event. But the picture in SE Asia and many other parts of the world is quite different. There are just tons and tons of plastic waste and other debris in the ocean, littered on the streets and also everywhere in the nature. I know that in some places they are trying to clean it up but currently it’s being done in a much slower rate compared to how new waste is dumped to the oceans and nature. I really didn’t like how they were packing basically each individual item to a separate plastic bag in grocery stores and whenever possible we declined them. Recycle and reuse! It’s not that difficult once you get it to be a habit!

Chasing material things will bring no happiness

Many people in SE Asia don’t have much. But most of them seem really happy because they have learned how to value and appreciate what they do have and especially people around them. Family, friends, relatives and so on. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that you have to have some material things like a decent place to live, a method of getting around, proper clothes and so on. You don’t have to be a monk living in a monastery. But chasing material things itself won’t bring you happiness. I think that through some of those things you can get a moments of happiness but you mustn’t get into the loop of “wanting”. If you do that then you’ll just want another one or a new one or a bigger one and so on. It might not be bad since it thrives you onwards, makes you make an effort but if you forget to appreciate what you already have it only brings you frustration. So always set your goals for moving forwards but don’t forget to be grateful for what you already have! And share it with other people because in the end it doesn’t matter who has the most things but who has the most loving people around them and many magic moments through which they are connected!

If you really want it, you can get it!

In some sense I believe in the law of attraction, that everything is connected somehow. Because in the deepest level we are all made of the same stuff and energy. And if you truly want something and believe in it you will send out vibrations by which you will get what you want. You just have to be specific, get the ideas to your subconscious mind and have an effort towards them. “Learn from Yesterday, Live for Today, Hope for Tomorrow”

Several years ago I made a quick website for my photos using the easy and simple Wix platform. Now I decided to update it a bit. I really like how easy it is to built a website there without any coding knowledge. Of course there are dozens of similar sites but for some reason it caught my attention.

Most of all I like to capture nature and the magnificent, majestic and interesting sights it has to offer. That is seconded by architecture and all the unique forms and figures you can find hidden everywhere. And basically everything else in between :). There are just some days I feel like taking a camera and going out to explore and discover! I hope you can also find some pictures to enjoy and savor the moment!

A while back when browsing through Instagram (yes, we all do that 🙂 ) I stumbled upon a great user with thought-provoking but also just fun and creative pictures, videos and posts. While going through their timeline for several occasions I found myself thinking about the meaning of these posts to me and broader to the humanity. I really like how they have mixed up funnier things with more deep posts that really can make you wonder how we have ended up this way or what is yet to come. Down below are just some samples that I took from their huge gallery. Be sure to check them out! You’ll definitely find something that catches your eye and your thoughts!

By now we’ve been back for roughly a week and it already feels like it was so long time ago when we were traveling through SE Asia. At some times it almost feels like dream. But what a dream it was :)! The first couple of days we just got used to Estonian climate and the time difference. We went to bed around 9 in the evening and woke up 5 AM :). and it was pretty weird. But by now we have acclimatized quite nicely and back to our normal rhythm.

I can’t say that we don’t miss the beautiful weather, warm seas, paradise beaches and all the greenery. Quite often I find myself thinking about all the different adventures we had but the life goes on and there’s so many new things to await for! Regarding this we already have some big changes in our lives. 5 days ago we took home a small little furry friend :). A 3-month old puppy that we named Triksi. So now we have the joy and the challenge to grow a happy and healthy member of the family out of her :)! Since we already have a 5 year old cat called Sipsik we also have another challenge of making them good friends with each other. So far so good, you’ll definitely hear more about them in the future posts :)!

Although this blog was mainly started because of our trip to SE Asia I’ll definitely plan to continue writing posts about different topics, my ideas and much more. Every day I just have so many new thoughts and interesting things I come across that I instantly feel like sharing. I guess that writing a blog has become a part of my everyday life 🙂

I’ve now been into photography for slightly over 2 years and I’ve managed to take quite many photos during this time. Yesterday I was going through them in order to prepare pictures for upload. There are some sites besides FB and Instagram to where I occasionally upload my photos for viewing and selling purposes. The latter is currently in a very miniature form but still, I like taking photos and also sharing them with the world :). Either way I decided to post some of my own favorite moments I’ve captured. Hope you’ll enjoy :)!

Here’s a quick overview of all the places we stayed during our trip. Almost all of them were pre-booked through booking.com based mainly on location and price/feedback ratio. I think the place we liked most was Saiyuan Residence and the least Denay’s House. Generally I would recommend all of them except the latter.

– VERY unprofessional staff, most of which don’t speak English, they’re keeping a monkey in a small cage, bad sound isolation. Generally wouldn’t recommend this place for anyone, if only for a couple days stay

+ a huge decent hotel with a separate restaurant and gym, very clean room, bath, good price compared to other nearby accommodations, good quality cleaning

– location a bit further away from Narita but a free bus rides every once or twice an hour

In addition there were some places we stayed during our Bali round trip. I described these briefly in this post.

Narita and Singapore were in a class of their own related to accommodation costs. Others were pretty much the same with Chiang Mai and Bali being probably the cheapest. If you have any additional questions just let me know!

Everything summed up it comes to 9150€! And about 1830€ per month or 915€ per person per month. Which is actually really reasonable and you could definitely skip some costs if you leave out the equipment part and use less flights. In addition you can also save on everyday costs and still live quite nicely!

Of course you can also spend 2x or even 10x or 100x as much, it’s totally up to you but the fact is that living in SE Asia is relatively inexpensive compared to many parts of the world.

If to leave out Singapore and Japan the cost of living is very roughly the same everywhere in the places we visited. If you like I have a more specific Excel file on our budget that I’m more than happy to share!

I recommend this kind of trip to everyone who has the opportunity! There’s a huge world waiting to be discovered and in order to see some things you just have to spend a little more time in any location. Savor the moments, embrace the journey and just enjoy!

Tomorrow I’ll review briefly the places we stayed during our trip. Here’s the video of Narita to finish this post! Wish you all the best!

“If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet”